American Libraries. (2008, July 16). ACLU Challenges Expanded FISA Powers. http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2008/july2008/fisachallenge.cfm
"Caldwell-Stone explained that the FISA Amendments Act alters the requirement for obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to conduct wiretapping. The amended law eliminates the need for any specificity in an eavesdropping request, so FISC judges would no longer know whose communications they were allowing to be intercepted. For example, she said, federal agents could obtain an order that “could simply collect e-mails that pass through AT&T servers in San Francisco going to Asia in bulk under a warrant issued under the FISA rules, and then peruse them at their leisure.”
The legislation also grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications firms that allegedly shared with the federal government all telephone and internet communications routed through their networks since 2001, as some 40 civil lawsuits contend."
"Unfortunately, e-reader technology also presents significant new threats to reader privacy. E-readers possess the ability to report back substantial information about their users' reading habits and locations to the corporations that sell them. And yet none of the major e-reader manufacturers have explained to consumers in clear unequivocal language what data is being collected about them and why."
"Thankfully, there are some e-reader options that do not connect wirelessly, nor include any privacy or "terms of use" provisions that allow monitoring of what you put on the device or how you use it. Sony's Reader, for example, may collect information about what books you buy from its own eBook Store, yet the Reader also works with books purchased from other sources as well. Even safer still, popular e-reader software programs, such as open-source FBReader, allow users to download content from a number of sources onto a multitude of devices, including one's computer or mobile, without handing over all information about their reading habits to one source, or anyone for that matter. "
Goodman,A. & D. Goodman. (2008). “America’s Most Dangerous Librarians.” http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/americas-most-dangerous-librarians
"In September 2007, a federal court ruled in the case of John Doe New York that the entire national security letter provision of the Patriot Act was unconstitutional. US District Judge Victor Marrero said that secretive nsls are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values." The Bush administration has appealed the decision, and John Doe New York remains gagged. But in San Francisco, another librarian has managed to beat an nsl: In May, the fbi withdrew a letter issued to the Internet Archive, a digital library, after a legal challenge brought by the aclu and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "A miscarriage of justice was prevented here," eff staff attorney Marcia Hofmann said at the time. "The big question is, how many other improper nsls have been issued by the fbi and never challenged?""
King, D. L. 10 reasons to NOT quit Facebook. http://www.davidleeking.com/2010/05/04/10-reasons-to-not-quit-facebook/
"So most definitely yes – keep tabs on what Facebook is doing. For that matter, keep tabs on what all the major social networks that you use are doing – it’s your stuff they’re messing with, after all. But is it a reason to quit Facebook, when almost half of your community is using that tool? I’m not so sure about that."
"Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
That's in contrast to traditional wiretaps and "pen registers," which record non-content data around a particular communication, such as the number dialed or e-mail address that a communication was sent to. The U.S. Congress mandates that it should receive reports on these requests, which are compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Soghoian wrote."
"In 2009, Facebook told the news magazine Newsweek that it received 10 to 20 requests from police per day. Sprint received so many requests from law enforcement for mobile-phone location information that it overwhelmed its 110-person electronic surveillance team. It then set up a Web interface to give police direct access to users' location data, which was used more than 8 million times in one year, Soghoian wrote, citing a U.S. Court of Appeals judge.
Those sample figures indicate the real total number of requests is likely much, much higher, since U.S. law does not require reporting and companies are reluctant to voluntarily release the data."
""These reporting requirements would provide Congress with the information necessary to make sound policy in the area of electronic surveillance," Soghoian wrote."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2007).Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks. http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Teens-Privacy-and-Online-Social-Networks.aspx
"Most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves online from the most obvious areas of risk. The new survey shows that many youth actively manage their personal information as they perform a balancing act between keeping some important pieces of information confined to their network of trusted friends and, at the same time, participating in a new, exciting process of creating content for their profiles and making new friends. Most teens believe some information seems acceptable – even desirable – to share, while other information needs to be protected.
Still, the survey also suggests that today’s teens face potential risks associated with online life. Some 32% of online teenagers (and 43% of social-networking teens) have been contacted online by complete strangers and 17% of online teens (31% of social networking teens) have “friends” on their social network profile who they have never personally met. "
"Girls and boys differ in how they think about giving out personal information online. Online, girls are more likely than boys to say that they have posted photos both of themselves and of their friends onto their online profile. Boys are more likely to say they have posted the city or town where they live, their last name and their cell phone number when compared with girls..."
"Older teens share more personal information than younger teens."
"Most teen profile creators suspect that a motivated person could eventually identify them. They also think strangers are more likely to contact teens online than offline. "
"Parents are using technical and non-technical measures to protect their children online.
Parents generally think that the internet is a good thing for their children, but few give their children unfettered access at home. Most teens whose online behavior is monitored by their parents recognize that they are being observed."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2007).Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/663/digital-footprints
"Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint."
"Few monitor their online presence with great regularity."
"Most internet users are not sure exactly what personal information is available online: "
"Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information."
"Internet users have reason to be uncertain about the availability of personal data; 60% of those who search for their names actually find information about themselves online, but 38% say their searches come up short. "
"One-in-ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online."
"Among adults who create social networking profiles, transparency is the norm."
"More than half of all adult internet users have used a search engine to follow others' footprints."
"Basic contact information tops most searchers' wish lists."
Magi, T. (2008). “A Privacy Victory in Vermont.” American Libraries, 39 (8): 60-63. (Oncourse)
Readings (all electronic documents may be accessed directly through Oncourse resources):
ALA. (2010). State Privacy Laws Regarding Library Records.
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/ifgroups/stateifcchairs/stateifcinaction/stateprivacy.cfm
American Libraries. (2008, July 16). ACLU Challenges Expanded FISA Powers.
http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2008/july2008/fisachallenge.cfm
"Caldwell-Stone explained that the FISA Amendments Act alters the requirement for obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to conduct wiretapping. The amended law eliminates the need for any specificity in an eavesdropping request, so FISC judges would no longer know whose communications they were allowing to be intercepted. For example, she said, federal agents could obtain an order that “could simply collect e-mails that pass through AT&T servers in San Francisco going to Asia in bulk under a warrant issued under the FISA rules, and then peruse them at their leisure.”
The legislation also grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications firms that allegedly shared with the federal government all telephone and internet communications routed through their networks since 2001, as some 40 civil lawsuits contend."
Bayley, E. An e-book buyer’s guide to privacy.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/e-book-privacy
"Unfortunately, e-reader technology also presents significant new threats to reader privacy. E-readers possess the ability to report back substantial information about their users' reading habits and locations to the corporations that sell them. And yet none of the major e-reader manufacturers have explained to consumers in clear unequivocal language what data is being collected about them and why."
"Thankfully, there are some e-reader options that do not connect wirelessly, nor include any privacy or "terms of use" provisions that allow monitoring of what you put on the device or how you use it. Sony's Reader, for example, may collect information about what books you buy from its own eBook Store, yet the Reader also works with books purchased from other sources as well. Even safer still, popular e-reader software programs, such as open-source FBReader, allow users to download content from a number of sources onto a multitude of devices, including one's computer or mobile, without handing over all information about their reading habits to one source, or anyone for that matter. "
Choose Privacy Week video.
http://vimeo.com/11399383
Goodman, A. & D. Goodman. (2008). “America’s Most Dangerous Librarians.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/americas-most-dangerous-librarians
"In September 2007, a federal court ruled in the case of John Doe New York that the entire national security letter provision of the Patriot Act was unconstitutional. US District Judge Victor Marrero said that secretive nsls are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values." The Bush administration has appealed the decision, and John Doe New York remains gagged. But in San Francisco, another librarian has managed to beat an nsl: In May, the fbi withdrew a letter issued to the Internet Archive, a digital library, after a legal challenge brought by the aclu and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "A miscarriage of justice was prevented here," eff staff attorney Marcia Hofmann said at the time. "The big question is, how many other improper nsls have been issued by the fbi and never challenged?""
King, D. L. 10 reasons to NOT quit Facebook.
http://www.davidleeking.com/2010/05/04/10-reasons-to-not-quit-facebook/
"So most definitely yes – keep tabs on what Facebook is doing. For that matter, keep tabs on what all the major social networks that you use are doing – it’s your stuff they’re messing with, after all. But is it a reason to quit Facebook, when almost half of your community is using that tool? I’m not so sure about that."
Yoder, D. Top ten reasons you should quit Facebook.
http://www.rocket.ly/home/2010/4/26/top-ten-reasons-you-should-quit-facebook.html
Kirk, J. (2011, April 12). US police increasingly peeping at e-mail, instant messages. PC World.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/224930/us_police_increasingly_peeping_at_email_instant_messages.html
"Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
That's in contrast to traditional wiretaps and "pen registers," which record non-content data around a particular communication, such as the number dialed or e-mail address that a communication was sent to. The U.S. Congress mandates that it should receive reports on these requests, which are compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Soghoian wrote."
"In 2009, Facebook told the news magazine Newsweek that it received 10 to 20 requests from police per day. Sprint received so many requests from law enforcement for mobile-phone location information that it overwhelmed its 110-person electronic surveillance team. It then set up a Web interface to give police direct access to users' location data, which was used more than 8 million times in one year, Soghoian wrote, citing a U.S. Court of Appeals judge.
Those sample figures indicate the real total number of requests is likely much, much higher, since U.S. law does not require reporting and companies are reluctant to voluntarily release the data."
""These reporting requirements would provide Congress with the information necessary to make sound policy in the area of electronic surveillance," Soghoian wrote."
Onion. Google opt-out feature lets users protect privacy by moving to remote village (video parody).
http://www.theonion.com/video/google-opt-out-feature-lets-users-protect-privacy,14358/
'Web users who choose to move to the desolate village are guaranteed an environment free from Google products and natural light from the sun."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2007). Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Teens-Privacy-and-Online-Social-Networks.aspx
"Most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves online from the most obvious areas of risk. The new survey shows that many youth actively manage their personal information as they perform a balancing act between keeping some important pieces of information confined to their network of trusted friends and, at the same time, participating in a new, exciting process of creating content for their profiles and making new friends. Most teens believe some information seems acceptable – even desirable – to share, while other information needs to be protected.
Still, the survey also suggests that today’s teens face potential risks associated with online life. Some 32% of online teenagers (and 43% of social-networking teens) have been contacted online by complete strangers and 17% of online teens (31% of social networking teens) have “friends” on their social network profile who they have never personally met. "
Parents generally think that the internet is a good thing for their children, but few give their children unfettered access at home. Most teens whose online behavior is monitored by their parents recognize that they are being observed."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2007). Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/663/digital-footprints
"Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint."
Magi, T. (2008). “A Privacy Victory in Vermont.” American Libraries, 39 (8): 60-63. (Oncourse)
The Shifted Librarian. You don’t know me.
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2010/01/26/you-dont-know-me.html
Solove, D. J. (2008). “The Future of Privacy.” American Libraries, 39 (8): 56-59. (Oncourse)
__Winter, K. (1997). Privacy and the Rights and Responsibilities of Librarians____.__
http://www.cstone.net/~kwinter/articles/ksr4_winter.pdf
IFM. Privacy, pp. 177-180.
IFM. Privacy and Confidentiality in Libraries, pp. 361-371.
IFM.// RFID in Libraries, pp. 284–287.